Match 3-color Zoo Keeper NDS

[Olivier]

Can someone please tell me if it's possible to swap animals while others fall in Zoo Keeper for the NDS? I don't have the game so I cant' check myself. Thanks!
In the online version (http://www.1980-games.com/us/reflexion-games/flash-games/zookeeper.php) it's impossible.

Yes I could have posted that question somewhere else, but after all it's a matter of game design. :)

EDIT: Huh I just found a newer version (http://www.kiteretsu.jp/games/zka/zka.htm) of it where it is possible!

[barrygamer]

I hate it in match3 games when you can't move pieces whilst others are falling! Much easier to code, no doubt :rolleyes: IIRC, Big Kahuna Reef in particular is a much better game due to this feature.

[Olivier]

I hate it in match3 games when you can't move pieces whilst others are falling! Much easier to code, no doubt :rolleyes: IIRC, Big Kahuna Reef in particular is a much better game due to this feature.
I have yet to think of a way to implement such a feature!:o

What does everyone think about that? Are match-3s better with "swap while falling" enabled?

[Michael Flad]

It's not hard to implement but it makes a real difference. Just try playing both kinds - it feels really restricting without the option once you got used to swap while other objects are falling.

[Bmc]

I have yet to think of a way to implement such a feature!:o

What does everyone think about that? Are match-3s better with "swap while falling" enabled?

I'm pretty sure Grey Alien's match 3's are known for that feature. And yes they are better with it. Anything that makes game play more fluid is a good thing.

[Olivier]

Yes you're right guys, thanks for your input. I've also read Grey Alien's thread about his match-3s. Was an interesting read.

But please don't say it's easy to implement, everyone isn't a talented coder. :) I've already had a hard time developing my first attempt (http://oliverpearl.com/axs/webgames.php?game=myshapes). For the moment I can't even figure out the conceptual pseudo-code-flow. bleh. :o

[Fost]

Re NDS Zoo Keeper: No, you can't. It happens so fast anyway, that even if you could swap them, it would be a pretty much useless feature.

[Grey Alien]

OK making matches whilst other gems are falling was *not* easy to implement ;-) At least not for me. There are tons of stuff that can go wrong that needs to be carefully tested especially when you have bonus items, locked pieces and gravity on the shapes (like I have). But it makes the game so much better, I hate match-3s without the option.

[Michael Flad]

In the end it's just a question of whether the two swapping objects are "idle" or doing anything else so they can't be swapped. I've sent Oliver code of an prototype I wrote - the whole core mechanic is really only a few hundret lines of code - not even optimized code.

Obviously not a complete game, but once you have the core running adding additional features is easy. Are match 3 games still profitable? They aren't as popular on Real as they used to (that's at least my impression of the games the portals offer these days).

[jankoM]

Funny... none of the BFG top 10 is match-3... however most of them are of "serving" type I think.

[Olivier]

Thank you Fost for letting me know about Zoo Keepr NDS.

Grey Alien I agree with you. At the moment I'm trying to think at all the different stuff that could happen when the player is able to swap pieces while others fall and... headache. :)

Yeah match-3s don't seem to be as popular as they used to be. I don't mind. I'm an indie and I do what I want. :D

[Bmc]

Funny... none of the BFG top 10 is match-3... however most of them are of "serving" type I think.

Ouba is a match 3, it's a Tetris Attack clone

[James C. Smith]

I have yet to think of a way to implement such a feature!:o

What does everyone think about that? Are match-3s better with "swap while falling" enabled?

Yes! swap while falling. Don't make the player wait. Swap any time all the time especialy while other pieces are falling.

That's what I would do if I ever made a match 3 game. :-)

[electronicStar]

"Swap while falling" should be mandatory, especially when there is a time limit.
There's nothing more frustrating than knowing what's the next move, but losing because you are stuck in a combo-chain of exploding tiles and you can do nothing while precious seconds are passing.

[Olivier]

"Swap while falling" seems so obvious now. Thanks a lot for everyone's advice.

[jcottier]

Zookeeper DS is way better than the flash version. The anwser to your question is YES and No. In ZK DS you can swap whille other pieces are falling only if you can. Meanings: if you try to swap something that will change at the end of the fall, then the swap is not possible. If you swap something in a different location witch doesn't interact with the fall, then it works.

In Smileys www.ovogame.com I had this problem too. I couldn't bother allowing the swap during fall but I did make this problem less significant by making sure that new Smileys will not create chains. Meaning, the game can have chains but only if you have created them. The computer will not create chains randomly. Without this feature, you could wait a long time because of all the randoms chains. The fact that you coundn't swap was very obvious and annoying. By adding this feature and making the fall very quick, this problems almost diseappear.

JC

[Olivier]

Hehe yes a different approach to the problem. Making the fall fast enough, that's a good idea. Thanks! :)

[James C. Smith]

Maybe swap while falling isn't so important after all. Jewel Quest 2 doesn't seem to have it. :confused:

[Grey Alien]

Jewel Quest 2? I missed that one but then some research tells me that it's for mobile devices only. Perhaps you can't play it fast enough for swap whilst falling to matter?

[Bmc]

Jewel Quest 2? I missed that one but then some research tells me that it's for mobile devices only. Perhaps you can't play it fast enough for swap whilst falling to matter?

Download version is being released Feb 7

[cyrus_zuo]

Jewel Quest 2: http://zone.msn.com/en/root/deluxe.htm?code=112258233&RefID=NG-112258233
Hasn't been released yet officially, but it is available from MSN today!

[Olivier]

Wow Jewel Quest 2! I really like Jewel Quest, it's very good in it's genre. No wonder they've made a sequel. Thanks for the heads up! ;)
I have yet to try the game but according to the screenies there doesn't seem to be much innovation. EDIT: Tested the game and I was wrong.

Swap whilst falling or not? I think it's simply a matter of balancing. If the fall is fast enough or if players are kept occupied enough then I believe that swap whilst falling isn't really necessary.
Personaly I think that by allowing players to swap pieces anytime, the action on the board could get much confusing. I think that I've made my choice.

[tolik]

We are releasing supercasual matching game this month and for the fellow Indiegamer forum members I'm leaving a special settings in config.ini file so you could play WITH "match while falling" and WITHOUT it. Such comparison will allow you to feel it in the same game and decide whether it matters or not. Debug feature is inspired by James C. Smith dirtyrect trick in BKF ;)

Trust me, "swap while falling" is not the matter of balance, it's the matter of player annoyance and frustration.

[Grey Alien]

Thanks Russell downloading now. Wow 41MB quite big then.

OliverPearl: sounds like you've done a U-turn and are going for no swap whilst falling. I really will annoy some more experienced players but I'll be interested to see how it turns out. I even get annoyed on the MCF series when you can't click two clues in rapid succession...

[Olivier]

@tolik: That's pretty interesting. Thank you for adding such a feature, please let us know when your game is released.

@Grey Alien: Yes I have decided not to add this feature. I don't really know if JQ2 made me feel more confortable with that decision. I've played the game and found the gameplay silky smooth, not annoying nor frustrating at all.

[Grey Alien]

I'll play it now and let you know what I think ;-)